In less than a 24-hour span, firefighters twice responded to a Lafayette College art center after a campfire filled
the building with smoke, Easton fire
officials said.

Deputy Fire Chief John Price said
firefighters were dispatched about noon
Sunday and again at 5:30
this morning to the Williams Visual Arts Building along North Third Street in the city after smoke alarms sounded.

Each time, firefighters suspected a
homeless person had built a campfire under the building and smoke from the
flames made its way in, he said. The fires were quickly extinguished but the
person, or persons, responsible had left before firefighters arrived, he said.

Roger Clow, the college's director of communications, said in an email this
morning the smoke had not caused any damage.

According to Price, the area where the
campfires were set, near a bridge over Bushkill Creek, has an exposed shoreline
under the Visual Arts Building and gives shelter from the elements.

"They are probably picking that spot because of
snow fall," he said. "There is no snow under there and it has a roof over it."

Firefighters have responded to similar calls
maybe "three or four times in the last decade," Price said.

"What's unusual is that it was twice within
24 hours," he said.

The college's Office of Public Safety has been made aware of the incidents,
Price said.